Just realised our next home game on 7th April v London Irish ( 3pm KO ) clashes with the Bath v Leicester game at the Twickenham Stadium ( 2pm KO ).
Donít know what size crowd is expected but presumably no Rosebine and difficult parking for those that drive and crowded public transport.

zooshJust realised our next home game on 7th April v London Irish ( 3pm KO ) clashes with the Bath v Leicester game at the Twickenham Stadium ( 2pm KO ).
Donít know what size crowd is expected but presumably no Rosebine and difficult parking for those that drive and crowded public transport.

And then another clash on May 5th. The Army v Navy punch-up at 3pm and Quins v exeter at 4pm.

Following the recent confirmation by Premiership Rugby of the Harlequins v London Irish match date and kick-off time as Saturday 7th April (15:00), the Club wants to address supportersí concerns about scheduling and travel arrangements for this match and the Harlequins v Exeter Chiefs match on Saturday 5th May (16:00), caused by clashes with matches being played at Twickenham Stadium.

Our preference, and that of the vast majority of our supporters, is for matches to take place on Saturdays at 15:00. This is the optimum scheduling from a player preparation perspective and so the regular season home match against London Irish, which kicks off one hour after Bath Rugbyís match against Leicester Tigers (14:00), will not change.

Our final home match of the season, against Exeter Chiefs, clashes with the Army v Navy match at Twickenham Stadium (15:00), with the Harlequins match kicking off one hour later. Our match cannot be rescheduled because all matches in the final round must be played at the same time.

We recognise that this will impact some supportersí travel arrangements for these matches, particularly those that use the Rosebine car parks. These car parks belong to the RFU and as such are included in the hiring of Twickenham Stadium, so will not be available to Harlequins supporters.

The Club is currently exploring alternative options to accommodate the travel needs of supporters who cannot easily use public transport to get to these matches and will notify supporters when we have more information.

"Our preference, and that of the vast majority of our supporters, is for matches to take place on Saturdays at 15:00."

Surely the majority of supporters would change their mind about that once they realise the game is due to clash with a Twickenham fixture, meaning it'll be nigh-on impossible to get anywhere remotely near the ground.

Quins Our preference, and that of the vast majority of our supporters, is for matches to take place on Saturdays at 15:00. This is the optimum scheduling from a player preparation perspective and so the regular season home match against London Irish, which kicks off one hour after Bath Rugbyís match against Leicester Tigers (14:00), will not change.

The cynic in me wonders how much of the decision not to reschedule to Friday is a middle finger to TPTB across the road for scheduling a Big-Game-wannabe fixture directly across one of ours.

'The Clash' turned out to be an uncannily prescient name it would seem....

blucherquinBarring the Rosebine not sure itís going to make much difference

A potential extra 60,000 folks to get through the building site that Twickenham Station currently is would certainly make quite a bit of difference to a normal Quins match day. Bath got 61k to their TW game last season and there's no reason to think they can't get a similar number this year. That means that there'll be numbers approximating that of a standard International game. Anyone who has used the train to get to/from an international over past years will remember the "fun" of trying to get onto an train after long queueing through either the ticket office (if heading out away from London) or through the carpark if you were heading up to Waterloo. Now you'll have both lots feeding through the car park. As our kick-off is after the Bath one, any train travellers from our game will be met by an already crowded station at best, and hour+ long queues if we're more realistic.

It'll be even worse with the Army Navy game. That's already completely sold out so 82K plus no doubt a full house for us of 14.8K. Most of the 82k will be completely off their heads by kick-off, so what they're like afterwards is not going to be pretty. I remember the last time we played at the same time as the AvN. It's not an experience I look forward to repeating...

yes I would prefer the games to be at 3pm Saturday afternoon, but if travel is so bad and parking non existent such that I cant get to the game, guess I would prefer it to be moved to a more viable day and time.

Won't the Bath and liecester fans all be in the stadium when most people for our game are at the stations? The car parking looks like the biggest problem on the day. Might have to forego a trip to the pub after the Exeter game though. They might not even be open.

It's going to be a right balls up with parking. I really think the club should sort something out seeing as we've forked out ¬£50 for matchday parking which isn't going to be available for 2 out of the 11 premiership matches....

For the Army v Navy game the problem lies with the RFU & Premiership Rugby not Quins. They both know full well that all the Premiership games have to kick off at the same time on the last day of the season and that once there was a clash there's nothing that could be done about it.

As others have said I don't think the Bath v Leicester game will have a huge impact on people unless they're driving.

Mayor WestWon't the Bath and liecester fans all be in the stadium when most people for our game are at the stations? The car parking looks like the biggest problem on the day. Might have to forego a trip to the pub after the Exeter game though. They might not even be open.

No, we kick off *after* the Bath game does, so they'll all be at the station when we turn out after our game....

Sorry FF,I know we kick off after. I meant before our game. Not being a train traveller and not being a rush away at the end person that hadn't occurred to me. I would guess an hour isn't long enough for the crowd to clear before our lot hit the trains. I'm sure there will be engineering works just to make train travellers day even more irritating. I'm lucky I can walk.

I travel in by car and have the same concerns as others regarding the availability of parking for the 7th April game. I e-mailed the club on Tuesday evening as follows:

On the 7th April our game with London Irish clashes with another being held in Twickenham Stadium. I understand Quins Season Ticket Members will not have access to the Rosebine Car Park. Can you please advise me if the club have made alternative parking arrangements for those wishing to watch the game. Thank you.

I received the reply this evening:

thanks for your query, good question! We hope to go out next week to supporters with a solution for the lack of parking available at this match. Obviously it is not ideal, but we will do our best to provide an appropriate solution for everyone here.

Nice to get a reply and it shows the matter is in hand. However the cynic in me is screaming about the use of "we hope" rather than "We intend/We plan".

I sympathise with the club on the parking issue (I also come by car and have bought a season car parking pass so this affects me too). The RFU owns the Rosebine so has "first dibs". Apart from conjuring parking for x hundred cars out of thin air it's difficult to see what Quins can do with a situation which is outside their control.

blucherquinYeah not quite sure what Quins can do about it.
The RFU just wants its money and doesnít appear to give a stuff. Canít be news to them when the final day of the Premiership season is and that all the games have to kick off at the same time.

Canít see any reason other than RFU raking in the cash when it can - army v navy, Prem final, barbarians then Stones and Eminem. Assume they just thought Quins can go suffer.

Quins could take the Big Game away from HQ - if the RFU don't/won't consider Quins needs, why should Quins put more money into RFU coffers? I acknowledge that is a bit 'cut off nose to spite face'.

blucherquinYeah not quite sure what Quins can do about it.
The RFU just wants its money and doesnít appear to give a stuff. Canít be news to them when the final day of the Premiership season is and that all the games have to kick off at the same time.

Canít see any reason other than RFU raking in the cash when it can - army v navy, Prem final, barbarians then Stones and Eminem. Assume they just thought Quins can go suffer.

Quins could take the Big Game away from HQ - if the RFU don't/won't consider Quins needs, why should Quins put more money into RFU coffers? I acknowledge that is a bit 'cut off nose to spite face'.

As we "always" get the Xmas/New Year game at home, and Sarries the game after the 6N at Wembley (or London Stadium this year) - i.e. both set in stone - it should not be too hard to ensure that if the season ends with a potential for a Quins fixture clashing with Army and Navy then Quins play away - simple.

Also, if Bath are to continue to play "The Clash" in April, that AP ensures Quins away then too. Footballing cities with 2 or 3 sides can ensure that this doesn't happen, so the AP/RFU/Clubs should be able to learn from them.

The nonsense about "everybody preferring Saturday 3pm KOs" is being used as a stick by the club and shows how there is not effective communication and understanding between Clubs, AP and RFU, in some circumstances...

Well brief answer is they don't - or rather they didn't. We never used to play home on a day something was happening at HQ. It's a recent phenomenon that the RFU have suddenly started ignoring our fixture list. I don't know why we can't move the Irish game, the club's reasoning is specious to say the least. But the RFU know the deal with last game of the season. All games start at the same time. No hope of moving that.

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